Before I get started, I want to say that Derpy is STILL my car and I will still be shipping her up to work on her and see what can be done.

Project “Derpy Drift” is currently being transformed from my 1987 Chrysler Conquest TSi, over to my 2004 Mazdaspeed Miata. While I’m NOT super happy about this (for many reasons), it is the most logical move and makes the most sense both financially and in terms of motorsports logistics. Disregarding the fact that the Miata out performs a Conquest in every way imaginable, it also has an infinitely larger aftermarket and far more persons and shops that are willing to support her.

You can ask my best friends and my fiancee, I did NOT come to this decision easily. It took 3 years to decide to move on and it took weeks to decide to finally use the Miata (as opposed to buying another car).

With that said and out of the way, I am beginning the build now and working towards getting her ready for 2016. It won’t be the fastest build, but I should be ready to hit my first event by season open. I’ll still be mixing drifting with racing, so no need to worry. My hope is that with the availability of parts for the Miata that I am able to participate more readily and for less money than I would have if I stuck with the Conquest.

Some pics of the latest. Here’s her roll bar getting put in. We decided to purchase just a hard dog hard bar and modify from that. With the help of a MazdaSpeed MX-5 group member, Brenden, we got a slamming deal! The end result will be a welded in harness bar and structural bracing from the bar down to the rear deck. I’ll have to draw up an idea of how I want my rear bar to be, hopefully I can throw that together sometime here soon.

The question has been asked as to where I’ve been . . .the long and short is, I got a new house out in Fishers, Indiana (used to live in Carmel) which is far more conducive to car-guy life. It’s a bigger house, with a HUGE yard, far more storage space and a lot more going for it in terms of atmosphere and things to do.

Now that I have the additional space, once money levels back off, I’ll be bringing Derpy up and she’ll be getting some first-hand attention.

Well . . .it kinda is . . .but I feel like it’s special . . .every kit is HAND MADE so every kit is just a little different.

SHUT UP IT’S WHAT I WANT TO BELIEVE SO MINE IS SPECIAL!

At any rate . . .let me set the mood.

One late-summer’s late night, I find myself browsing the internet and I, as usual, wind up back on Facebook. A thread gets started about intakes on the Mazdaspeed Miata and their usefulness comes into question. Everyone starts mentioning that they either have or would like to have an intake and one particular intake keeps being brought up with reverence: Joe’s Intake.

Anyhoozle, so I scour the internet trying to find this “Joe” guy . . .and I begin to think he doesn’t even exist! Turns out . . HE DOES EXIST and he’s on Facebook. He reached out to ME (of all possible scenarios) and I was overjoyed. He mentioned that he’s doing one final run of intakes and I could get in if I would like!

*ahem*

HELL YEAH!

I immediately tell him to shut up and take my money, he does and 4 weeks later, I have an awesome looking box at my door!

Said Box! :3 ^_^

I immediately begin working on the car . . .well . . .I take that back. I’m a Unix Admin, as some of you already know, so I have to WORK and work on the car at the same time . . .oh well. I wasn’t trying to set a record for fastest completion time, so no sweat.

I remove all the stocky bits:

The stocky bits

How clean the engine looks with all that piping cleared up and that box gone!

I’m a little bummed that many of my upgrades are now negated . . .but I guess it’s okay . . .

This is why we have for sale posts!I don’t know what these are worth, Joe says about 150.

Oh well . . que sera sera . . .that’s life in the tuning biz . . . ONE plus side is that my spreadsheet with total invested gets reset. I’ll only have the price of the car and the intake will incorporate the BOV, inlet and intake all in one . . .it’s a bit of a win! I’ll take that victory!

Here’s the final product. I still need to clean things up, but I got a call from our App Support team and I had to do some code-merges and code fixes. So I tightened the last of the bolts and snapped this quick picture. As I’m typing this, I’m reminding myself to get out there and double check everything before closing the hood!

All buttoned up! SOOO pretty! I can’t wait to drive this! Video soon!

I know, I know . . .a big fat BOOOOO because I don’t have any driving footage. Well, it’s 21:30 and it’s dark. It can wait until the weekend! Besides it’ll give me a chance to shake things down and see what I forgot to tighten!

Was asked to stop for their discount to help rally in a few people and had some fun! Left work early, stuck around for a couple of hours and had a chance to have a blast and get some photos. Really fun out there!

I don’t know if it garnered any extra attention to the store but it definitely attracted a few kids and adults alike to check her out and walk into the store.

My fiancee always teases me because I talk to EVERYONE and wind up getting opportunities, such as this, that I CLEARLY do not deserve.

So, as we are up to speed (pun intended) it’s known that I recently purchased some wheels and tyres for the MSM (Mazdaspeed Miata). I take them over to Discount Tire to get mounted and balanced and they looks ready to go and I’m excited to get them rolling.

I pull off the old wheels, place the new wheels on, after installing the locking lug nut, I go to put the rest of them on. BAM! The factory lug nuts are too short and too wide to go on properly. LOL! I should have known it wasn’t going to be that easy!

AMAZON TO THE RESCUE!

You have to love that Free One-Day (sometimes same-day) shipping on items. I order some new lug nuts, longer and narrower of course, and get them in the following day.

LET THE FUN BEGIN!

So I get the wheels unloaded and setup to install.

Wheels are ready to setup. Leaning against Octavia (my Verano) looking so cool!

I pull the first wheel off and weigh it . . . It’s roughly 1KG per inch of diameter. Not the heaviest but definitely not the lightest.

Just for good measure, I weigh the next wheel as well. It’s not MUCH lighter, but a 2KG difference is supposedly pretty big when considering it’s unsprung and rotational. The new lug nuts we purchased are also CONSIDERABLY lighter than the factory ones. By a very tangible amount. So that helps too!

Right around 15.5kg . . .good bit of difference supposedly. I’m not convinced yet, but people swear by it.

Of course, it was at this point that I absolutely HAD to run into another road block! 😦

Yep, I couldn’t use the 4-way as the socket-portion was too wide to clear the spokes of the wheel. So I went out and picked up a 21mm 1/2″ socket for my torque wrench (which you ALWAYS use to tighten your wheels on, right?!?!) :p

Freakin 6 freakin dollars!

I get home, get everything sorted (after misplacing my wheel key several times, HAHAHA) and finally get all four properly placed (directional tyres ) and installed.

These bad boys ride as good as they look! I’m super satisfied with this purchase. Good upgrade!

Only did a VERY small amount of driving to shuffle the cars back around back into the garage properly. I can already tell the car is going to ride, handle and GO a lot better than it did before. Just from the little bit of movement. I’m hoping that it prove to be true. I’m very satisfied with the look, now I just have to lower the damn car! HAHAHA! The $$$$ never ends, right?

Here’s a comparison pic, for good measure:

You can see it sits a hair lower, but the wheels are nearly the same size after you factor in tyre height.Good stuff!

Hey all, so this should be a fairly quick update, pics only I’m afraid.

Did some purchasing, did some shopping around and got a great deal on wheels.

Before we get started, I want EVERYONE READING THIS to go over toA-Spec Wheels and Tires LLCand bookmark their page. The next time you need some wheels for your daily driver, show car or track toy, look them up FIRST. Tell them I sent you and maybe they’ll give you a good price . . .maybe they’ll charge you more. I think Nick is a little jelly of my MSM, LOL!

I’ll go into detail on that in a minute, but first, I want to start my story by saying that I am doing a second build, LOL! It’s official. The MSM is officially being turned into another project. At first the plan was just to play around with a few things, spice it up a notch and have fun while doing it. With the realization that my next modification for this car is going to be a megasquirt ECU, I think that officially puts the car in Project Status.

I want to bump my wheels down to something a little more usable and decided to go with a set of 16s. Now those who know me, know I hate spending unnecessary money on wheels so I try to find deals. My good friend, now viewed more as a little brother, William, showed me a deal on some Twisted Spoke Miata 16’s for only 100 dollars! Yes, you read that correctly . . 100 bucks for twisted spokes! The catch? Oh there’s always a catch . . .I had to go ALL THE WAY to Troy, Ohio to get them 😦

Oh well, that’s what luxury cars are for, right? So I hopped in the Verano, put on my Creepypasta playlist (yeah, I listen to creepypastas, what of it? LOL!) and headed off on the 2 and a half hour venture.

When I get there, I load up these awesome puppies:

Then head back home . . .

Oh yeah, I’m definitely a happy camper!

A few days pass and I get a notification letting me know that my wheels from A-Spec have arrived! With too much excitement to wait, I decide that I better go get them, besides . . .it gives me an excuse to drive my car again, LOL!

Wheels go here

See, I told you!

I get them home, unpack them and immediately get VERY excited as I realize this project is coming together quite nicely.

I am going to take my time as much as possible as I still have another track car, other hobbies, a fiancee and other responsibilities to adhere to, but I think this will be a fun project that should tide my car-guy side over until my Derpy is ready!

I hope this was fun for ya and I hope you check back as we continue the build!

So we’ve had some interesting times in the Derpy Drift project, yeah? There have been some crazy years, we’ve gone from heavy blogging to no blogging to heavy blogging to vlogging. It’s been insane! HAHA!
Well, I’m sorta back, and we’ve got a LOT of updates. Firstly, Derpy, as she was known previously, is no more. Much of the livery has been removed and while we understand this will disappoint a lot of viewers, it’s strategic. In pursuing a more focused approach to racing, this move will help open up a platform for support and representation that we feel many will appreciate. Also, the newly-fashionable “stickerless” look is worth giving a shot.

Don’t worry, I’ll leave a nod or two on the car for those who know how this car became a spotlight vehicle in the first place. I have not and will not forget my fans and friends I’ve made over the years. Just because the vehicle is changing doesn’t mean I am. Time helps us to evolve, not change.

I have, regrettably , had to part ways with a few vehicles. The RX7 is sold as is the F-150. Not a fun decision to have to make and it wasn’t for financial reasons, but for space and convenience purposes. I am now located in Carmel, IN as part of some unexpected life turmoil but am doing quite well for myself, so that’s good!

My newest toy, to live life with Octavia (my 2013 Buick Verano), is a 2004 Mazdaspeed Miata. Her name is Audrey and she’s an absolute BLAST. Every little twist and turn of the modification-wheel makes this car infinitely better than it was before. She handles like a Miata, goes like a Porsche. It’s tough to explain how this car makes life and how well she fills the void while Derpy undergoes surgery and awaits her next event.

I’ll update the blog with pictures and videos as they come to fruition. Hopefully it can be a constant thing again, yes? HAHA!

Anyway, pictures and video!

Video:

Some pictures:

Derpy, as she sits now:

Derpy as she sits now. Large vinyls removed, the remainder will happen once she’s up here so we can pick and choose, then she’ll get painted 🙂

Coilovers installed, brakes (obviously not shown) are installed as well. So she handles and stops better!

The cage now has door bars and is fully welded in. There will be a rear cross section added in addition to this.

Here’s Audrey:

Here’s how she looked the day I bought her

Here’s how she looks now! Not much different but a few additions. Video first, then pictures ^_^

Alright everyone, here’s a new segment I’m trying out on my channel. It’s called Rental Car Reviews. Along with GT Channel, I’ll be taking various rental cars and seeing just how well they stack up to their required duties as a rental. If they can survive me, and pass MY tests, they’ll surely meet your standards.

Hey everyone in internet land, David Adams here again. Bringing you another VLOG update and some progress on the RX7. Derpy is still in the shop, the mechanics are making sure everything is in line and all of the ducks are in a row before tearing loose on her, so we’re still focusing on the 7 for now. We’ve done some upgrades and got some new stuff rocking like a new master cylinder, upgraded brakes and . . hehe . . well . . .you’ll see in the VLOG! So without any delay . . .lets tear into it!

I don’t really have a schedule for updating the blog, but I’ll try to do at least one a week. Please forgive any delays in posting, the racing season is picking up and so is work as an IT Consultant so I’m strung between two lines, LOL! But enough about that!

The fun stuff. Got the car back up and running and she looks SOOOOOO awesome! Can’t wait to get to her first drift event. I’ve had a lot go on so I’m just gonna let the pictures and videos do the talking. We’ve gotten a lot done, new aero, cage welded down and reinforced, engine put back together and a shake down run! WHAT?! Yeah . . .I said it!

So let’s see these pics!

We saw the cage when it was mocked up, now it’s finalized. Next up is to put an SCCA Brace in it, that will happen before our first event.

Here’s a shot of how the cage and Derpy look in the car with everything buttoned up. Photo credit to Brandon Andrews

This is during the shake down run. The valve cover gasket wasn’t fitted properly (it was too large) so we had to modify it and seal it with gasket maker. Worked WONDERS! Photo Credit to Brandon Andrews.

This is how she currently sits. I love it! The wing and tow hook may not be for everyone, but I enjoy it. And it will be SO MUCH FUN at the track!

Here’s a cool shot from the mountain run! We see most of the “team” lined up. I put “team” in quotes because we’re anything but, we’re just a group of guys who likes to have fun! Respect for ourselves and respect for one another, that’s the code we live by! That’s the code we drive by!

I also had the change to get a VLOG up. So here’s VLOG 3, explaining the final steps on getting the car running and the body modifications setup. As always, the video will explain everything!

Click Here to Watch VLOG 3: The Head Gasket Returns and She LIVES!

I also got some video from my solo Shake Down run this past Sunday. The video below will show you the fun (and mistakes) that were had. It took some getting used to and the chassis is now more rigid that the suspension wants to deal with. So that’s a thing I’ll have to look into with my suspension setup. It’ll get all dialed in, piece by piece. I’m not gonna rush it.